Tomorrow Was the War (1987)
This movie is based on a novel by Boris Vasiliev and describes life in a small Russian provincial town in 1940 - one year before Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The main characters of the film are ordinary Soviet high school students. They study in the Soviet school, try to be correct and ideological Komsomol activists. But not always the “correctness” suggested by the teachers coincides with the inner convictions of young souls - it is difficult for them to come to terms with the fact that their relatives and loved ones are suddenly “enemies of the people”.
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Overrated and overhyped
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
...for a time, an age and a country. for Stalinism. precise, honest, simple. and, more important, useful. a film about young people. and the brutal discover of truth. about the nuances of an unique age. and the clash of freshness of youth against near reality. sepia sequences. definitions. traits of teens. love and happiness. and the message. sure, it is easy to analize the film from the perspective of Glasnost. but, in strange manner, that remains just a detail. it is a powerful film. for story, performances and cinematography. and that could be the lead motif for see it.
This is surely not my opinion but the party line as told in the movie when Essenin's poem is read ! This benign event is the spark to dramatic ones : arrest of a helpful single father as a people enemy and the consecutive suicide of the daughter ! As it's happens with students who seeks their identity in a rigid school system, softened by an inspired newcomer, well you meet again all the themes of Dead Poets society ! So, as in space, Soviets were there first ! Maybe the great difference here is that the women who have the spotlight as friends in school, as director, as mothers...This critical movie set before the great patriotic war is from 1987 and i suppose that without Perestroika, it could never had been released ! Anyway, it's good to rejoice with sweet and cute Natalia : in a way, she reminds me a bit of Noomi Rapace, except that she is more lively and friendly. This plunge into Russian films is particularly interesting as it's always new experiences with unseen places, people It's great to see that outside west, there is also quality and moving works as we can believe there is nothing else.. If your medias don't recommend it, i urge you to find it and you will be filled with smiles, cries and reflections
The film is about the truth, but it is absolutely not about the truth of discovering the injustice of the system, since every system is unjust in one way or another and people know about it, as everybody does in this film. This film however is about the exploration of truth, the real truth, the truth of heart, the truth of being loyal to your friend and to your country no matter what, no matter how difficult the situation is, no matter how unjust is the system.
That is a wonderful movie that breaks your heart. The story takes us in the last autumn before Germany invaded USSR. A group of high school kids with their eternal business of first love, classes, leaders and dreamers is suddenly thrown out of peaceful existence. A father of the most likable girl is taken by KGB and she has to renounce him publicly. She can not betray him and so she invites all her true friends (those who did not desert her for being a daughter of the enemy of the state) for a picnic. She does not say so, but t is a farewell. After that she takes an overdose of sleeping pills. In an unbelievable twist of fate (KGB almost never released its victims) her father is released in few days. The story runs about a week, but boy, how fast this kids had to grow up. It is like the innocence of their existence was lost. One day they lived in the most perfect country, where justice and equality ruled, or so they were brought up to believe. And next they new that it all were lies and innocent people were destroyed by regime without mercy. There was also problem of loyalty. Who do you stay loyal to, your friend or your country? The movie ends with few laconic lines of information what happened to the rest of the class during the war. Somebody was burned in a tank, somebody was hanged for participation in resistance, somebody became an ace pilot. It is a great movie, see it if you have an opportunity. May be you would learn something you did not know about people from the USSR and about this period of history.